James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years

James Fenimore Cooper #1

by Wayne Franklin

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) invented the key forms of American fiction—the Western, the sea tale, the Revolutionary War romance. Furthermore, Cooper turned novel writing from a polite diversion into a paying career. He influenced Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Francis Parkman, and even Mark Twain—who felt the need to flagellate Cooper for his “literary offenses.” His novels mark the starting point for any history of our environmental conscience. Far from complicit in the cleansings of Native Americans that characterized the era, Cooper’s fictions traced native losses to their economic sources.
Perhaps no other American writer stands in greater need of a major reevaluation than Cooper. This is the first treatment of Cooper’s life to be based on full access to his family papers. Cooper’s life, as Franklin relates it, is the story of how, in literature and countless other endeavors, Americans in his period sought to solidify their political and cultural economic independence from Britain and, as the Revolutionary generation died, stipulate what the maturing republic was to become. The first of two volumes, James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years covers Cooper’s life from his boyhood up to 1826, when, at the age of thirty-six, he left with his wife and five children for Europe.

752 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Robert Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite a book. Through his vivid descriptions of the life and times of James Fenimore Cooper, the author of this biography helps us to understand the motivations, prejudices and sheer economic terror of living in New York State in the early 19th century. Cooper began writing popular literature to save his family's farm during a mortgage-lending crisis not unlike our present problem. That Cooper evolved into a writer who tackled issues of race, religion and defining the American spirit is a credit to his ability to push readers beyond the typical popular literature of his day. This is a big book but well worth the time, it’s a great sprawling book and an excellent read.

[Marie Carmean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This amazing first volume of the life of James Fenimore Cooper is researched so completely that it awes the reader. I learned so much about one of my favorite writers of this period. However, I found the sections involving the many financial and legal struggles of Cooper's father and his after death heirs, ending with the youngest son James himself, difficult to read. There are so many complex legal issues involving all of this (resulting in Cooper losing all of his properties). Often Fenimore Cooper is at fault by defaulting on paying back loans on time. Other issues involve the lack of professionalism of others. These well-developed sections are hard to read due to their legal complexity, though I give Franklin kudos for the research it involved. I wanted more about Cooper's life, which is there also in great degree, and the development of his writing career. I thoroughly enjoyed these sections but am of course aware that the one is reflected in the other. They cannot exist apart in these earlier years. I am hoping that Vol. 2 will be less about legal issues, and more about the writing itself as the family relocates to Europe for several years and then returns to a changed home country. It's worth reading, definitely. I feel like Franklin did an excellent job but it is a difficult read at times.